RICE SCIENCE

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Effects of Water Management, Arsenic and Phosphorus Levels on Rice Yield in High-Arsenic Soil-Water System

  1. 1School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Campus, the University of Adelaide, SA 5064, Australia; 2917 Brad Field Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; 3Department of Agronomy, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2002, Bangladesh; 4Former Director General, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur 1701, Bangladesh; 5Bosques de Canelos 129, Bosques de las Lomas,Mexico DF, Mexico
  • Online:2014-03-28 Published:2014-01-24
  • Contact: A. S. M. H. M. TALUKDER
  • Supported by:
    USAID funded subproject on Impact of Arsenic Contamination on Agricultural Sustainability and Food Quality (Main USAID Grant No. 388-G-00-02-00070-00). The first author is thankful to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), CIMMYT Bangladesh, Cornel University and Texas A&M University for funding to do this Ph.D. research.

Abstract: Aerobic rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation is considered an alternative production system to combat increased water scarcity and arsenic (As) contamination in the food chain. Pot experiments were conducted at the Wheat Research Centre, Dinajpur, Bangladesh to examine the role of water management (WM), As and phosphorus (P) on yield and yield attributes of boro (variety BRRI dhan 29) and aman (variety BRRI dhan 32) rice. A total of 18 treatment combinations of the three levels of As (0, 20 and 40 mg/kg) and P (0, 12.5 and 25.0 mg/kg) and two WM strategies (aerobic and anaerobic) were investigated. Yield attributes were significantly affected by increasing As levels. Grain yields of BRRI dhan 29 and BRRI dhan 32 were reduced from 63.0 to 7.7 and 35.0 to 16.5 g/pot with increasing As application, respectively, indicating a greater sensitivity of BRRI dhan 29 than BRRI dhan 32. Moreover, As toxicity was reduced with aerobic compared to anaerobic WM for all P levels. During early growth stages, phytotoxic symptoms appeared on BRRI dhan 29 and BRRI dhan 32 rice stems with increasing As levels without applying P under anaerobic WM. Under anaerobic and As-contaminated conditions, BRRI dhan 29 was highly susceptible to straighthead, which dramatically reduced grain yields. There were significant relationships between the number of effective tillers per pot and root dry weight, grain yield, and number of fertile and unfertile grains per pot for both BRRI dhan 29 and BRRI dhan 32 (P < 0.001). Our findings indicate that rice could be grown aerobically in As-contaminated areas with a reduced risk of As toxicity and yield loss.

Key words: arsenic, phosphorus, rice, water management, yield